First Time

When Valentina took off her blouse in front of me with no hint of shame, I thought it was only confidence. I still didn’t know what she had planned for that afternoon.

The salesgirl assured me no one could see me. When the box fell, I was exposed to three strangers who had no intention of leaving.

I’d always liked men. Or so I thought—until the night my friend looked at me differently, and something inside me answered before I could choose.

The hallway was silent, his door ajar. I knew I shouldn’t go in. I went in anyway.

She showed up without warning at the start of the semester and from the first day she looked at me without shame. I didn’t know when I started needing her to do it.

I was twenty-six and had never done anything like it. I entered that room trembling and came out a different person.

When I told her to let herself go, I never imagined Valeria would become the most unexpected star of the whole gathering that night.

When I left his bedroom transformed into Valentina, the sound of my heels in the hallway told me there was no turning back.